s Colonial
Secretary), the Legal Adviser (afterwards Attorney-General), the
Controller of the Treasury (afterwards Treasurer), the Mining
Commissioner and of the Commissioner for Native Affairs, were already
organised. The progress achieved by the heads of these departments in
the Transvaal, and by Sir H. Gould-Adams and Mr. Wilson in the Orange
River Colony, formed collectively a record the merit of which was
acknowledged by "an expression of the high appreciation of His
Majesty's Government of the services which they had rendered in
circumstances of exceptional difficulty."[311]

[Footnote 311: Cd. 1,163.]

It is difficult to present an account of the work already done in the
Transvaal in a form at once brief and representative. The report of
Mr. Fiddes, the Secretary to the Administration,[312] recorded the
progress made in education, public works, and district administration.
Since July twenty-four new schools, of which seven were camp schools,
eight fee-paying schools, and nine free town schools, had been opened,
and 169 teachers were employed in the town schools, and 173 in the
camp schools, opened by the Administration. The public buildings,
including the hospitals and asylums at Johannesburg and Pretoria, the
post offices and the seventeen prisons administered by the department,
were being maintained and, where necessary, restored. In Johannesburg,
as we have seen, a Town Council had been established, but Pretoria was
still administered by a Military Governor, who controlled a temporary
Town Board and the police. The Administration, however, was empowered
by proclamation No. 28 of 1901 to appoint Boards of Health in places
where no municipality existed, and it was expected that Pretoria would
be endowed, before long, with the same municipal privileges as
Johannesburg.

[Footnote 312: Dated December 12th, 1901.]

[Sidenote: Legislative reforms.]

The volume of work handled in the Legal Adviser's office formed a
remarkable testimony to the energy and capacity of Sir Richard
Solomon. Resident magistrates' courts had been established in twelve
districts; temporary courts were being held in Pretoria and
Johannesburg; the offices of the Registrar of Deeds and of the Orphan
Master, and the Patent Office, were reorganised; and an ordinance
creating a Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief Justice and five
Puisne Judges, was drafted ready to be brought into operation so soon
as circumstances permit